random_nessfandomcom-20200214-history
Carnival Junk
Carnival Junk is a studio album by the American pop and rock band The Rock-afire Explosion. Released on March 14, 2000 on Polymer Records, the album was produced by Spinal Tap's Nigel Tufnel. It was recorded from December 1999 to February 2000 at Stebbing Studios in Auckland, New Zealand. The record was refined and mastered at Sterling Sound, New York City. This, along with "Gee, Our First Album" and "Electromagnetics", are featured in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Background Carnival Junk was conceived in 1998, after Fatz, Billy Bob, and Looney Bird rejoined the band. Thus, Carnival Junk required a new writing project for the band. They have stated that the fact that they were all living together in a McMansion in San Jose, California did not aid the writing process at this time. The band's manager, April Eton-Hogg, hired Nigel Tufnel of Spinal Tap to produce the album. Nigel and the Rock-afire flew to Auckland, New Zealand and recorded the album at Stebbing Studios. Tour In 2000, the Rock-afire began touring to promote the album. The dynamic of the live show changed even more than the previous tours. A week after Carnival Junk's release, the band released the remix album Remix-Room, and on the Carnival Junk Tour they used the opportunity to perform updated versions of some of the songs in their live set that they had been performing since 1980. Beach Bear, while not playing the guitar, stood behind a Roland D-50 and a EML Poly-Box perched atop a Rhodes MK-60 digital piano. Adria, while not playing the guitar, played a Yamaha CS2x perched atop a Roland Jupiter-6. This tour was the first time that Clarice played guitar, playing a Butterscotch Blonde-colored G&L ASAT electric guitar. She was absent for several shows, resulting in Beach Bear's sister Barbara Stringsband, playing either her Mosrite Mark II, a Fender Stratocaster in Olympic White with a Black scratchplate, or a Fender Musicmaster in Olympic White with a custom Glitter Pink scratchplate, standing in. The tour set featured the classic Rock-afire Explosion sign, this time behind Dook, and had ceiling-mounted Vari-Lite VL5 wash luminaires lighting the stage. Two large Diamond Vision videoboards presented synchronized video. The first show of the Carnival Junk promotional tour, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California, was filmed and transmitted live to high schools and college campuses around the world. It was billed as "Carnival Junk Live!", and featured Anal Cunt (listed as AxCx on the TV broadcast) as an opening act. However, this performance was marred by technical mishaps. One of the two Diamond Vision boards suffered a technical failure during "Little Arrows", forcing the band to abandon the performance of "My Boyfriend's Back". Dook's microphone cut out during "Guitarzan", and as a result performed the rest of the show with a spare Sony ECM-51 microphone. Terra CherryBomb also memorably hit a fangirl who walked up onto the stage and started dancing with the band with her guitar. The Carnival Junk Live concert was later rebroadcast in a severely edited form on pay-per-view television, bleeping out many of the swears in Anal Cunt's songs and omitting some of the technical gaffes. Category:Albums